Electrical connector



1967 R. H. MOTTEN, JR

ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 14, 1964 574 1" HM? #4 27, Jr.

J 1957 R. H. MOTTEN, JR

ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR 5 Sheets-5heet 2 Filed Oct. 14, 1964 1967 R. H. MOTTEN, JR

ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR 5 Sheets-Sheet Filed Oct. 14, 1964 United States Patent 3,296,576 ELECTRICAL CQNNECTUR Roger H. Motten, Jr., Erie, Pa., assignor to Marathon Special Products Corporation, Erie, Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Get. 14, 1964, Ser. No. 403,817 10 Claims. (Cl. 339176) This invention relates to electrical connectors and has as its purpose to provide a quickly detachable connector for simultaneously making or breaking a plurality of circuits.

More specifically, this invention relates to plug-in type electrical connectors wherein a plurality of spaced apart spade-like prongs or tongues, all projecting in the same direction from a male contact unit, can be simultaneously inserted into or removed from an equivalent number of correspondingly arranged sockets in a female socket unit.

An object of this invention is to provide an electrical connector of the plug-in type which is especially well adapted for use with a terminal strip. In this respect the present invention is similar in purpose with the gang connector forming the subject matter of the Nielsen Patent No. 3,007,129.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved male contact unit which not only achieves better connection with the female socket means but also is capable of use with a number of structurally different socket means or receptacles.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved female socket means which is especially well adapted for use with sectional or multiple terminal strips and which, in addition, provides for better contact with the spade-like prongs or tongues of the male contact means.

With these and other objects in view which appear as the description proceeds, this invention resides in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts substantially as hereinafter described and more particularly defined by the appended claims, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the hereindisclosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claims.

The accompanying drawings illustrate several complete examples of the physical embodiments of the invention constructed according to the best modes so far devised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of one form of the male contact means of this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of one of the spadelike prongs or tongues of the male contact means and its conductor terminal;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the sectionalized female socket means of this invention, with parts thereof shown disassembled;

FIGURE 4 is another perspective view of the female socket means, showing the sections thereof mounted on a common base, and showing one of the locking members by which the sections are held together, disassembled from the rest of the structure;

FIGURE 5 is an end view of one form of the assembled connector with parts thereof broken away and in section;

FIGURE 6 is a top view of the assembled connector shown in FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 is an end view similar to FIGURE 5, but illustrating a slightly modified form of male contact means;

FIGURE 8 is an end view of an assembled connector similar to the one shown in FIGURE 5, but illustrating another adaptation of this invention;

FIGURE 9 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view showing one end portion of one of the socket-like terminals of that embodiment of the invention shown in FIGURE 8;

FIGURE 10 is an end view similar to FIGURE 5, showing still another modified embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 11 is a perspective view of a somewhat modified male contact unit; and

FIGURE 12 is a perspective view of a simplified terminal member for the female socket unit.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings in which like numerals indicate like parts throughout the several views, the numeral 10 indicates generally the male portion or unit of the electrical connector of this invention which, as indicated, is adapted to be quickly assembled with the female portion or unit 11 of the connector, to simultaneously complete a number of electrical circuits.

The female portion or unit 11 comprises a plurality 'of similar sections 12 molded of insulating material and arranged in a row in side-by-side mating relationship to form a conventional terminal strip. As is customary, the several molded body sections 12 are held in mating relationship by being mounted on a common base 13 of any desired construction. Thus, as shown, the base may be a metal channel with inturned flanges which embrace and overlie foot portions 14 on the molded body sections 12. In this case, the entire group of sections is clamped between bracket-like a-b-utments 15 adjustably secured to the base in clamping engagement with the endmost body sections.

From the standpoint of this invention a significant aspect of this sectional terminal strip construction resides in the fact that it provides insulating barriers 16 between adjacent terminal members 17 which extend transversely across the assembly, These terminal members are short lengths of square copper tubing. They are held against displacement from the body sections 12 by tongues 18 formed on the molded sections and received in recesses 19 formed in the medial portions of the terminals. However, any other suitable way of holding the hollow terminal members assembled with the body sections 12 may be employed since this detail forms no part of the invention.

Each tubular or hollow terminal 17 is adapted to have a conductor wire 20 connected to one end thereof by having a bated end portion of the wire clamped securely against the bottom wall 21 of the terminal by a screw 22 which is threaded into its top wall 23. The other end of the terminal 17 is adapted to receive one of the spadelike connectors or tongues 24 of the male contact unit 10. For this purpose this end portion of the tubular terminal 17 may have its top wall 23 pierced and inwardly deformed, as at 25, or as shown in FIGURES 8 and 9 the bottom wall 21 of the terminal may be slit along its side edges to delineate a lip portion 26 which is then bent inwardly to have its end portion in close juxtaposi tion to the underside of the top wall 23 so as to coact therewith in forming a socket. Preferably, in this case, the end portions of the side walls 27 of the hollow terminal are bent inwardly to give support to the lip 26.

Another way of providing for electrical connection between the tongues 24 of the male contact means and the hollow terminal members 17 into which they fit, is to use a conventional clamping screw 28 threaded into the top wall 23 of the terminal member 17, as shown in FIGURE 10. It is, of course, also possible to use the simplified form of terminal member 17 shown in FIG- URE 12, which consists merely of a fiat punched strip having a headed conductor clamping screw 22 threaded into one end portion thereof and a transverse slit 25' in its opposite end portion to receive a tongue 24.

However, the preferred socket construction is that il lustrated in FIGURES S and 7, wherein the bottom wall 21 of the hollow terminal 17 is pierced, as at 30, by the same tool employed to produce the piercing 25. Hence, when the connector is assembled, the tongues 24 of the male contact means are gripped at two points to assure a better electrical connection.

The male contact means, designated generally by the numeral 10, comprises a body 31 of insulating material of a size to span whatever number of terminals there may be in the terminal strip and this number, of course, is de termined by the number of circuits which the connector is intended to handle.

In any event, the body 31 is one integral molding hav* ing a top face 32, a bottom face 33, and side faces 34. Hence, in cross-section the body 31 is roughly rectangu lar; preferably, though, its upper portion is bulged outwardly as at 35 to provide a handle to facilitate separate of the male contact means from the female socket means. The body 31 is molded with a plurality of cavities 36 arranged in a row and equal in number to the number of terminals 17 in the terminal strip, The mouths of all of these cavities open to the top face of the body 31 and their inner ends terminate short of the bottom face 33 so as to provide walls 37 which close the bottoms of the cavities except for holes 38 which pass through these walls at a point close to one side face 34 of the body,

In the molding of the body 31, access openings or holes 39 are also provided. These access openings lead from that side face 34 of the body which is opposite the one adjacent to which the holes 38 are located, and open into the cavities 35.

Received in each of the cavities 36 is a tubular conductor terminal 4!) of a size to pass freely through the mouth of the cavity. This terminal 40 is simply a short length or section of copper tube either square or rectangular in cross-section, the latter being the case in the present instance. The terminal 40 thus has four flat walls, two of which-designated 41 and 42are narrow and the other two-each of which is designated 43-being wider.

For convenience of description, for which purpose the body 31 was defined as having top, bottom and side faces, the wall 41 of the conductor terminal may be considered its bottom wall since it is this wall upon which the tongue 24 is seated. The tongue 24 consists of a metal strip, preferably Phosphor bronze or the like, folded transversely and medially upon itself as at 45, with its overlapping end portions received in the terminal 40 and seated on its bottom wall 41. The fold 45 thus constitutes the outer extremity of the tongue and is that portion thereof which first enters the pierced openings 25' and 30 when the terminal 17 of the female socket means is of the type shown in FIGURES and 7.

To properly locate the tongue 24 with respect to its terminal 40, the overlapping end portions of the strip which comprises the tongue, are abruptly reduced in width to provide shoulders 46 in the opposite edges of the tongue. These shoulders engage the adjacent end of the terminal and preferably the total width of the tongue is equal to the outside width of the terminal. The overlapping end portions of the tongue are held in place by indentations 47 in the side walls 43 of the terminal, the indentations being so located that they bear against the upper one of the overlapping end portions or leaves of the tongue and' force both leaves down toward the bottom Wall 41.

The opposite or top wall 42 of the terminal has a tapped hole 48 into which a conductor wire clamping screw 49 is threaded to physically and electrically connect the bared end of a conductor wire 50 with the terminal and its tongue. Attention is directed to the fact that the head 51 of the conductor clamping screw is received in and is accessible through the access hole 39. Hence, the insertion of the screw serves to hold the terminal and its tongue assembled with the body 31, but in a manner permitting the tongue a degree of freedom so that it may better accommodate itself to the socket into which it is inserted during assembly of the male contact means with the female socket means.

Attention is directed to the fact that the bottom face 33 of the body 31 of the male unit It) has grooves 55 formed therein. These grooves are spaced apart a distance corresponding to the spacing between the barriers 16 of the female socket body and are of a width to snugly receive the edge portions of the barriers when the two parts or units of the connector are assembled. This interengagemerit serves to hold the male and female units in proper relationship and has the added advantage of improving the insulation between adjacent terminals and of increasing the creepage distance between adjacent tongues and terminals.

If desired, the tongues of the male contact means may be bent at right angles, as shown at 24' in FIGURE 7, so that the conductor wires 50 may project laterally or horizontally. In other respects, theembodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGURE 7 is the same as that of FIG- URE S.

The male contact means of those embodiments of the invention shown in FIGURES 8 and 10 are identical with the one shown in FIGURE 5, but since entry of the tongues in these cases is through the end of the hollow terminals 17, the conductor wires at both sides of the connector may lie in substantially the same horizontal plane.

If desired, the body 31 of the male contact means may be provided with an overhanging ledge 60, as shown in FIGURE 11. This overhanging ledge, like the underside of the body, is provided with grooves 61 to receive the adjacent edges of the partition walls 16 and thereby achieve greater security against electrical creepage between adjacent terminals.

Attention is directed to the fact that where the hollow terminals of the female socket means are of the type shown in FIGURES 3, 5 and 7, wherein the top and bottom walls thereof are pierced to receive the tongues of the male connector, the edge portions of the pierced openings 25 taper to somewhat of a feather edge and thus have some degree of resilience, which is desirable. This, plus the fact that the tongues are of looped formation, assures exceptionally good electrical contact between the male and female parts of the connector, regardless of how often the connector is assembled and disassembled.

It should also be observed that the body 31 of the male contact means can be molded in any desired length to provide for any number of circuits or, if desired, can be molded in a substantially long strip and then cut into sections of the desired length.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that this invention provides a greatly improved electrical connector of the plug-in type and that it has many advantages over those heretofore available.

What is claimed as my invention is:

1. An electrical plug-in connector comprising:

(A) female socket means; and

(B) male contact means insertable into the female socket means, the male contact means comprising (1) a body of insulating material having a cavity, the mouth of which opens to one face of the body and the inner end of which is spaced from the opposite face of the body so as to leave a wall therebetween, said wall having a hole therethrough, the body also having an access hole leading into the side of the cavity inwardly of its mouth,

(2) a tubular conductor terminal in the cavity with one open end thereof in juxtaposition to the inner end of the cavity and its other open end facing the mouth of the cavity to receive a conductor wire inserted into the cavity,

said tubular conductor terminal being recsaid tongue consisting of a strip of metal folded transversely upon itself medially of its ends, the overlying end portions of the strip being abruptly reduced in width to form a shoulder, and said narrow overlying end portions being received in the tubular conductor terminal and seated upon the wall thereof which is opposite the wall having the tapped hole, with said shoulder bearing against the adjacent end of the tubular conductor terminal to locate the tongue with respect to said terminal,

(4) indentations in opposite walls of the tubular conductor terminal pressing against the side edges of the narrow overlying end portions of the strip to hold them down on the underlying wall of said terminal, and

(5 a screw threaded into said tapped hole to bear against a conductor wire inserted into the tubular conductor terminal and clamp the same against the overlying end portions of the tongue, the head of the screw being loosely received in said access hole.

2. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the body of insulating material has a plurality of said cavities arranged side-by-side therein,

each of which contains a tubular conductor terminal with its respective tongue projecting beyond the body, further characterized by the fact that the tubular conductor terminals abut the inner ends of the cavities, and by the fact that the cavities are substantially deeper than the length of the tubular conductor terminals, so that said terminals are well insulated from one another.

3. The electrical connector of claim 2, wherein the female socket means comprises a body of insulating material having top and opposite side faces and shaped to provide a plurality of sideby-side channels, the ends of which open to the opposite side faces of the body,

said channels being equal in number to the number of cavities in the body and the male contact means, and spaced from one another by partition walls the edges of which are substantially flush with the top and side faces of the body,

an elongated terminal member in each of said channels with its ends adjacent to the side faces of the body, means on the end portions of the terminal members which are adjacent to one side face of the body, for securing conductor wires to the terminal members, means on the other end portions of the terminal members to grip a tongue on the male contact means,

and the body of the male contact means being shaped to have grooves, between the tongues, in its face from which the tongues protrude, to receive and hold the adjacent edge portions of the partition walls as the male contact means is assembled with the female socket means, whereby their insulated bodies are interengaged and cooperatively located and the corona creepage distance between adjacent tongues is increased.

4. The electrical connector of claim 1, further characterized by the fact that the female socket means comprises a body of insulating material having top and side faces 6 and shaped to provide a channel which opens to the top face and the adjacent side faces of the body, an elongated terminal member seated in said channel with its ends adjacent to the side faces of the body, means on one end portion of the elongated terminal member for securing a conductor wire thereto, and means at the other end portion of the elongated terminal member defining a slot, the mouth of which faces upwardly,

said slot being of a size to snugly receive the tongue of the male contact means.

5. The electrical connector of claim 4, wherein the terminal member of the female socket means is hollow and has substantially flat top and bottom walls, and

wherein said slot is in the top wall of the hollow terminal member and the edges of the slot are curved downwardly to facilitate insertion of the tongue into the slot.

6. The electrical connection of claim 5, wherein the bottom wall of said hollow terminal member also has a slot in line with the slot in its top wall, and

wherein the body of the female socket means is shaped to provide a space beneath the slotted bottom wall portion of the hollow terminal member so that the tongue may project through both slots.

7. A combined terminal and tongue for the male contact member of a plug-in type electrical connector, comprising:

(A) a short metal tube substantially rectangular in cross section, with fiat top and bottom walls connected by side walls;

(B) a strip of metal folded transversely medially of its ends with its end portions in flatwise engagement,

the overlying end portions of the strip being snugly received in the tube and being seated upon the bottom wall of the tube, the remainder of the folded strip projecting from the tube and providing the tongue, the tube having a tapped hole therethrough; and

(C) a conductor clamping screw threaded in said hole to clamp a conductor which has been inserted into the tube against the top leaf of the folded strip.

8. The electrical connector of claim 7, further charac terized by the fact that the overlapping end portions of the folded strip which are inside the tube are narrower than the remainder thereof, and the junction between its narrow and wide portions forms an abrupt shoulder,

by the fact that the narrow overlapping end portions snugly fit between the side walls of the tube and said shoulder bears against the adjacent end of the tube,

and by the presence of indentations in the side walls of the tube bearing against the top one of the overlapping end portions of the strip to hold the bottom one thereof solidly against the bottom wall of the tube.

9. A combined terminal and socket member for an electrical plug-in type connector, comprising:

(A) ametal tube substantially square in cross section with flat top and bottom walls and opposite open ends, the top wall having a tapped hole in one end portion thereof;

(B) a conductor clamping screw threaded in said tapped hole to clamp a conductor wire which has been inserted into the adjacent end portion of the tube against its bottom wall; and

(C) gripping means at the opposite end portion of the tube to grip the tongue of a male contact member,

said gripping means comprising a slot in the top wall of the tube extending transversely thereof, the top wall being deformed inwardly at opposite sides of the slot to provide smooth rounded edges defining the mouth of the slot,

and a second transversely extending slot in 7 the bottom wall of the tube in line with the slot in the top wall, so that a tongue inserted into the top slot may protrude down into the bottom slot.

10. A combined terminal and socket member for an electrical plug-in type connector, comprising:

(A) a metal tube substantially square in cross section with flat top and bottom walls and opposite open ends, the top wall having a tapped hole in one end portion thereof;

(B) a conductor clamping screw threaded in said tapped hole to clamp a conductor wire which has been inserted into the adjacent end portion of the tube against its bottom wall; and

(C) gripping means at the opposite end portion of the tube to grip the tongue of a male contact member,

said gripping means comprising a finger integral with one of said fiat walls delineated therefrom by slits in said wall,

said finger being bent inwardly toward the other of said flat walls to coact therewith and form a flat-faced socket for the tongue,

8 and means to support the finger against movement away from the wall with which it coacts, said means comprising portions of the side walls of the tube contiguous to said slits bent inwardly against the side edges of the finger.

References Cited by the Examiner FOREIGN PATENTS 1/ 1958 Germany.

EDWARD C. ALLEN, Primary Examiner.

J. H. MCGLYNN, Assistant Examiner. 

7. A COMBINED TERMINAL AND TONGUE FOR THE MALE CONTACT MEMBER OF A PLUG-IN TYPE ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR, COMPRISING: (A) A SHORT METAL TUBE SUBSTANTIALLY RECTANGULAR IN CROSS SECTION, WITH FLAT TOP AND BOTTOM WALLS CONNECTED BY SIDE WALLS; (B) A STRIP OF METAL FOLDED TRANSVERSELY MEDIALLY OF ITS ENDS WITH ITS END PORTIONS IN FLATWISE ENGAGEMENT, THE OVERLYING END PORTIONS OF THE STRIP BEING SNUGLY RECEIVED IN THE TUBE AND BEING SEATED UPON THE BOTTOM WALL OF THE TUBE, THE REMAINDER OF THE FOLDED STRIP PROJECTING FROM THE TUBE AND PROVIDING THE TONGUE, THE TUBE HAVING A TAPPED HOLE THERETHROUGH; AND (C) A CONDUCTOR CLAMPING SCREW THREADED IN SAID HOLE TO CLAMP A CONDUCTOR WHICH HAS BEEN INSERTED INTO THE TUBE AGAINST THE TOP LEAF OF THE FOLDED STRIP. 